Award Winners / Artist Profile

Kirk Lang

About the Artist

Kirk Lang (Seattle) is a designer, jeweler, metalsmith, sculptor and amateur astronomer. He holds a MFA from the University of Washington in Metal Design and a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Jewelry & Metals. In addition to maintaining an active studio, he works as a freelance gold and platinumsmith and has taught at the University of Washington and North Seattle Community College. His work can be seen in such publications as MJSA Journal, 500 Metal Vessels, 500 Necklaces, 1000 Rings and Metalsmith Magazine. Recurring themes in his work include time, space and mythology, in the form of mechanical interactive objects.

Kirk received a 2012 GAP to defray the costs new work for a show at Danaca Design Studio & Art Gallery in 2013. Kirk works as a metalsmith and sculptor. His new body of work will investigate the innate human desire to create and assign meaning to the objects within the physical world that surrounds us in an effort to identify, express and communicate how and why we do this and how it impacts our daily lives on a micro and macro scale.

For his Meet the Artist event(s), Kirk organized presentations for more than 180 students in seven different Sammamish High School art classes in May 2013. Guide and go-between, collaborator and professor, Lang described his past and present experiences with art to aspiring young makers of jewelry, ceramics, drawings, paintings, blown glass and metalwork. After each presentation, he facilitated a discussion about the specifics of pursuing a career in the arts, and the options out in the world for art professionals, answering questions about his personal struggles and successes. Kirk also taught a Jewelry and Metals class how to fabricate a ring by hand using techniques that included sawing, forming, soldering, and finishing. After a short demonstration, Lang worked with students on their own projects, giving them the opportunity to apply these techniques, and answering questions along the way—Lang himself an alloy of sorts, a link between the initial sparks to create an artistic actualization. Read more about Kirk's Meet the Artist event.

Information included above was provided by artist at the time of application.